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POLITICO 44

Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) said President Barack Obama’s decision to scrap the planned missile defense shield shows the United States’ rivals that “we’ll cave” if pressured.

“It sends a very bad signal,” Kyl told Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren Thursday night. “It also diminishes our capability to defend ourselves against ballistic missile attack, coincidentally, because we would be taking out the system that might help the United States and potentially substituting a system that could only protect Europe.”

“It tells the Russians if they play hardball with us, we’ll cave,” Kyl said. “It tells our allies that we’re not a very trustworthy partner. It tells actors in the Middle East, who are trying to decide whether they throw their lot in with the Iranians or with the Americans, that maybe they ought to throw it in with the Iranians.”

Kyl conceded that the issue of whether Iran is even technologically capable of hitting the West with a missile is a “huge consideration,” a point the administration made in defending its decision, but the Arizona senator questioned what benefit the administration gets from scrapping the program.

“Did we think we’d get some quid pro quo? That’s certainly not apparent right now,” he said.

Asked in a follow up question if Kyl thought there was some type of quid pro quo between the United States, Iran and Russia, he said “it’s possible,” though he doubts it.

“Russia has asserted that it has a right to be involved in its ‘near abroad,’ places like Eastern Europe and parts of Asia, and that the United States needs to stay out of there,” he said. “Now, these are NATO colleagues of ours, Poland and the Czech Republic, and if we backed off of putting weaponry into those countries because Russia has objected because it doesn't like our weaponry that close to Russia, that sends a very bad signal.”

It's just another job they want to unload on the Navy, who is already supporting OIF, OEF, and counterpiracy operations in the area.

The Bush plan would have allowed some unloading of resource requirements onto the involved countries.

Everybody is smoking the issue up by dropping the Iran-bomb excuse. The shield was going to protect against aggression from the east. If you don't know what countries are east of Poland and Czechoslovakia, Google it. You'll see just how far away Iran is from central Europe.

Jon Kyl should realize that the Obama defense system is a proven system which works. The old plan was the wishful Star Wars fantasy system. Europe will now have a real working defense system in place rather.

At least we have finally dropped the pretense that the anti-missile shield in Poland had anything to do with Iran. The Russians never believed that, and they were right all along.

In any case, it is not in their interests to attack NATO and start another world war. In fact, that's the last thing they want to do, but neither to they want NATO expanded up to the suburbs of Moscow, for obvious reasons. Nor do they have any interest is having Islamic fascist states south of their border, possibly armed with nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, and that is one area where we can cooperate with them to some extent.

What are our interests? Keep in mind that we are no longer strong enough to be the Great Superpower of 1945, extending hegemony in the Middle East, Asia, Latin America and Europe. Those days are long gone, so we might as well recognize that we are just one power among many, and unable to shape the world in our image. We should cooperate with other countries where possible, fight only if attacked, work on all our domestic problems that have been neglected for decades, and help reform the international system so it is friendlier to social and economic development in teh poorer countries.

Or maybe it will show people we have smartened up. Mr. Kyl, you supported Bush's foreign policy right? Did a hellava job keeping Russia out of Georgia right? Mr. Kyl, what foreign policy achievement did your policies give us in the last 8 years? Hey, didn't Bush recognize and cozy up to Quadafi? Really showed dictators what our commitment was to democracy right? But, it was the right thing to do so I commend him for that (so, you got to name something other than Libya).

Mr. Kyl, you have your picture taken with Bush during your last campaign?

Robert Gates, Secretary of Defense. Now who appointed this guy who just sold out America. He is a real lefty isn't he?

"the Arizona senator questioned what benefit the administration gets from scrapping the program. " How amount saving a boat load of money by not chasing expensive technology we're not likely to use? Republicans are against wasteful spending unless, of course, it's on defense programs.

Next election may be too late. This Socialist President stiffed our European allies, wants to legalize all illegals and get them health care on guess whose nickel, jumps from one outrage to another assuming he controls the agenda and the dialogue......Iran will have nukes, Israel will be attacked, he will stiff Israel, He will stiff Japan, he will stiff Taiwan, he will continue to build a shadow government, he will abuse anyone who disagrees with him as racist......just like Chavez, Castro, Putin, Imadinnerjacket, Qadaffy.....everything our fathers fought and died for gone......ALL OBAMA ALL THE TIME DAY IN DAY OUT DAY AFTER DAY OVER AND OVER AND OVER.....BECAUSE HE DOES NOT CARE WHAT YOU THINK......IMPEACH OBAMA NOW

Kyl is a typical war-mongering neocon who wants to be at war with Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Russia, etc. With Lieberman he sponsored the 2006 Lieberman-Kyl resolution declaring the Iran Revolutionary Guard a terrorist group in order to give us a green light to attack Iran. These neocons lied us into war with Iraq and are trying to do the same thing with Iran. They are angry now because this missile defense system was canceled since for one thing it's now been exposed that Iran is nowhere as close to developing an ICBM as the neocons were leading people to believe.

Obama is a communist, intent of the destruction of the US. All his actions to date have been to weaken the United States. He is guilty of Treason. When will the forces within our government wake up and start impeachment proceedings.

Jon Kyl should realize that the Obama defense system is a proven system which works. The old plan was the wishful Star Wars fantasy system. Europe will now have a real working defense system in place rather.

What exactly is the Obama defense system and where exactly have anybody seen it working?

TeamPOLITICO: Sep. 18, 2009 - 1:09 PM EST

“It tells the Russians if they play hardball with us, we’ll cave,” Kyl said. “It tells our allies that we’re not a very trustworthy partner. It tells actors in the Middle East, who are trying to decide whether they throw their lot in with the Iranians or with the Americans, that maybe they ought to throw it in with the Iranians.”

It spells only one word to all of them: Obama. E.g., Russians play hard ball with Obama and Obama caves. Etc.

The only thing any foreign nation can trust Obama about is a place for them under the Obama bus. "Great" message, Obama!

Obama had scrapped the planned missile defense shield in Poland and Czech Republic without even discussing it with their leadership or notifying them. That's "classy" and "presidential", isn't it?

And he did it on September 17th.

Everything our incompetent President does is always symbolic and "historic". Or so he claims.

Given the fact that September 17th is a very sad and dark day in the history of Polish nation (Russians have invaded Poland on Sept. 17, 1939), what exactly is the Obama message to Poland?

Or may be it is not Poland who Obama wants to send his message to - may be it is Russia? What is Obama saying? "Dimitry Medvedev/ Vladimir Putin, I have no balls of my own. Please allow me to lick yours?"

It says we're smart enough not to spend a ton of money on something that doesn't work and in a location that doesn't make sense. Obama wouldn't have had to "cave" on this if Bush hadn't signed onto the worthless program in the first place.

Kyle thinks it's a mistake to cancel a program that no knowledgable person thinks will even work. this puts the lie to his self-decribed "conservatism". real conservatives don't just blindly support spending money (even on the military) when there is NO likelyhood of this thing EVER WORKING! How much money do you think they give him to support systems that don't work. You see, it's a lot cheaper to keep "developing" this stupid cash cow that won't ever be called to do anything. But that's Kyl for you - a Good Ole Piggie lining his coffers at the public trough.

The neocons as usual are exaggerating a non-existent threat . Much is made of the fact that Iran has enough low-enriched uranium for one bomb if it figures out how to enrich the uranium to weapons grade. We have no evidence that they know how to do this. We also have no evidence that they plan to do this since the low-grade is what they need for peaceful use generating electricity. We also have no evidence that they know how to make a nuclear warhead and fit it on a missile. And the reason this system was canceled ( besides the fact that it had not been shown to work, was very unpopular in both Poland and the Czech Republic and had not been approved by either parliament) was that we now believe that Iran is nowhere close to developing a long range missile. Therefore Obama wisely opted for short-medium range missile defense system at half the cost. Once again the warmongering neocons' lies serving as scare tactics are exposed. And the so-called conservatives who object to any money spent to improve our nation (health care,roads, etc) want us to throw money away needlessly. Such hypocrites.

Republicans are just playing the Wimp Card on Obama. It's Standard Operating Procedure for them. They do it on every Democratic President, and all the messages are prerecorded and on automatic pilot, just like the Race Card and Religion Card.

Once you realize that all this stuff is just part of their POLITICAL strategy, and has nothing to do with "truth" or with anything really happening in foreign relations, it loses its effectiveness. It's all "just politics", like Fox "News".